letter to the editor

Rest in peace Fr. Murphy

Mon, 09/27/2021 - 2:45pm

Dear Editor:

Last Monday our community lost a special friend and gifted priest, Father Tom Murphy, pastor of All Saints Parish. Father Tom presided over the seven churches in our parish, and when his schedule brought him to Our Lady Queen of Peace, we felt especially blessed to celebrate mass with him.

What a priest he was! We Catholics learn that the mass is an encounter with Jesus Christ through the scripture and the Eucharist. A priest’s role is to lead, to engage, to instruct and to support his congregation in this dual event. Father Tom did this in welcoming and engaging ways that enriched the experience for us all. His homilies took the Sunday readings and pulled us all into their meaning and their application using his own brand of scholarship, humanity and wit. Half-joking, he often chided us out of any complacency we might feel, and charged us to move, to act, to learn. He wasn’t above a loving remark to noisy babies (“You know, they think that’s singing.”) and he never dodged the tough issues that plague our community, our nation, or our Church.

And what a friend he was. When we called on him to pray with us at our son’s graveside, he shared this heartbreaking time with our whole family, and later, each Sunday at the church door, he proclaimed “The McGonegals are here!” greeting us with open arms. We felt specially loved, and comforted, yet fully aware that Father Tom’s pastoral care was all-inclusive, a model for any priest, and for us all.

Rest in well-earned peace, dear friend.

Patricia McGonegal

Acton, Massachusetts

and Ocean Point